The host city of the 1998 Olympics was Nagano Japan. A short bicycle ride brought us to the stadium of the opening ceremony. Here I am taken in picture with the Olympic torch and the “Snowlets”, the olympics mascots. The Olympics were a profoundly marking event for the people of Nagano. It created an accelerated development of the town with a sudden increase of the infrastructures and also a cultural opening to the world.
As an anecdote ,the people of Nagano,all Japanese they are, and especially the mayor of the time, wanted to greet so well the athletes that they were offering free beverages in vending machines. This led to a lot of abuse from the athletes who took great amounts of unnecessary drinks.
I also heard of some fight between American and Canadian hockey teams after perhaps some abuse of alcohol…
Nagano olympic torch
The snowlets
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